Blogging the End of the World™
By Janet Gregg, Jacksonville Daily Progress 2 August 2011 JACKSONVILLE — The impact of the current drought on the state’s agriculture industry has been devastating already and is likely to worsen if the drought continues through next year as some experts predict. “It does look like the drought of 2011 will be the costliest drought […]
US contact: Terese Rosenthal, Tel.: +1 609 243 4339 12 July 2011 An exceptional accumulation of very severe natural catastrophes makes 2011 the highest-ever loss year on record, even after the first half-year. Already, the approx. US$ 265bn in economic losses up to the end of June easily exceeds the total figure for 2005, previously […]
Analysis by Lester R. Brown* WASHINGTON, Jul 20, 2011 (IPS) – Many countries are facing dangerous water shortages. As world demand for food has soared, millions of farmers have drilled too many irrigation wells in efforts to expand their harvests. As a result, water tables are falling and wells are going dry in some 20 […]
By EVAN SCHWARTEN30 July 2011 (AAP) – SOME day it’ll be one of those things old timers boast about to cyclone-wary newcomers. “You think this is bad? You should have seen Yasi,” they’ll say. But that kind of bravado is still some way off. Six months after experiencing the biggest cyclone in a century, the […]
By Joel Connelly 28 July 2011 The Canadian federal government in Ottawa has silenced a leading West Coast fisheries scientist who has argued that a virus is infecting and killing sockeye salmon when they enter the Fraser River, not far north of the U.S.-Canadian border. The undammed “mighty Fraser” supports four of the world’s greatest […]
By Kyung Lah (CNN)2 Aug 2011 TOKYO (CNN) – The operator of Japan’s crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has detected the highest radiation levels at the facility since initial earthquake and tsunami five months ago, a company spokesman said Tuesday. The ultra-high levels of radiation were measured Monday afternoon on the grounds of the facility, […]
By RACHEL TOUNE2 August 2011 MISSION Beach’s iconic Dunk and Bedarra Island resorts will be put up for sale after their owners announced they had abandoned attempts to rebuild following devastation suffered in Cyclone Yasi. Hideaway Resorts, the resorts’ parent company, said the extent of the damage made it unfeasible to attempt a complete refurbishment […]
By EVA VERGARA2 August 2011 SANTIAGO, Chile — This has been the wettest winter in decades for Chile’s arid northern desert, where fractions of an inch of rain have done major damage in some areas and set the stage for spectacular floral displays in the weeks to come. July came and went with major storms […]
By David Biello25 May 2011 (Scientific American) – The human enterprise now consumes nearly 60 billion metric tons of minerals, ores, fossil fuels and plant materials, such as crop plants and trees for timber or paper. Meanwhile, the seven billionth person on the planet is expected to be born this year—and the human population may […]
August 1 (Bloomberg) – Tokyo Electric Power Co., operator of Japan’s crippled Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant, said it detected the highest radiation to date at the site. Geiger counters, used to detect radioactivity, registered more than 10 sieverts an hour, the highest reading the devices are able to record, Junichi Matsumoto, a general manager at […]
